


What Sunlight Hides

by costumejail



Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Kinda, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, One Shot, Post-Traffic Report (Song), Temporary Character Death, can be standalone but makes more sense if u've read dying is easy, ish?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26149387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/costumejail/pseuds/costumejail
Summary: There's one part of being a DJ that Dr. Death-Defying really doesn't like.
Relationships: Dr. Death Defying & Show Pony (Danger Days), Dr. Death Defying & The Phoenix Witch (Danger Days)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 21





	What Sunlight Hides

**Author's Note:**

> So as I said in the notes, this one can be standalone but if you've read (at least) chapter 3 of [Dying is Easy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25517968/chapters/61911097) some of the details might make more sense! Up to you!

Mid-broadcast, a raven feather fell to Dr. Death-Defying’s soundboard. He picked it up carefully, placing it next to the board and read off the last of the announcements Show Pony had written out for him.

“So keep all that in mind next time you hit the sands. Now I need a break before my throat goes drier than Z-6 at noon, here’s an old favourite to keep you tumbleweeds busy until I’m back.” 

D switched the input to an old cassette player, loaded up with a single from the first Richard Ai Yai album, and picked the feather up from the table again.

“Pony?”

“What’cha need, boss?” Show Pony rolled into the broadcast room, aer wheels squeaking against the tile floor as they came to a stop.

“Watch the station. I’ve got a meeting.”

Pony mock-saluted then dropped into a chair and rolled it in front of the soundboard. D put a hand on their shoulder in thanks and left the room, feather tucked carefully behind his ear. Making sure that Pony was paying attention to the broadcast plan laid out on the desk, D left the RadioShack, rolling around to the shady side of the building. He pulled his rusted lighter from his chest pocket and set the feather alight, dropping it to the sand.

“Doctor,” the figure that appeared from the smoke rustled as she spoke.

“Lady,” D inclined his head in greeting. “You bring news?”

The Phoenix Witch tapped her taloned fingers against the bottom of her chin. Despite the Witch not having a physical form in this state, her nails gently clicked against the mask that served as her face. A hum escaped her chest and D waited patiently, not wanting to rush the deity while she chose her words.

“A message, for your zones.” She held out a slip of paper, it became solid as D reached out to take it. “You may wish to deliver the news personally, or you may not. Regardless, your killjoys must know.”

“Thank you, Lady.” D prepared to leave, but the Witch remained, idly plucking at her feathers.

“It is... “ The Witch seemed at a loss for words and D stared. In all the time they’d known one another, which had been a long time, she’d never stayed longer than just delivering her message. “Rare that I am surprised in this way. Choose your words carefully, when you give the news.”

“I will,” D didn’t really understand what the Witch was getting at but didn\t think too much of it. Sometimes deities got a little… confused about how the mortals they oversaw actually communicated. Not that he’d say that to her, she didn’t have the benefit of interacting with them on the daily.

“Until next time.” 

The Witch vanished.

“Until next time,” murmured D.

He tucked the folded paper into his pocket with the lighter, then rolled back into the RadioShack.

When he re-entered the broadcast room, Pony was in the middle of a rambling story about the last derby, a lost sandpup, and six pounds of fireworks.

“Pony,” D interrupted aer.

“Oh! Well, that’s enough of me. We’ve got the good doctor back in the studio ready to beam some soundwaves _woosh!_ right through your brains. Fastest skates in the desert, signing off.” Pony covered the microphone with a hand and whispered, “Meeting over?”

D waved the paper, “Can you set up a traffic report?”

Pony nodded and slid out of D’s way as he headed back to the desk. He unfolded the paper and read it. 

He read the paper again.

Pony leaned down, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was giving D such pause, but he waved aer off.

D cleared his throat, slipped a pair of headphones on, and addressed the desert.

“Bad news from the zones, tumbleweeds.”

D prayed that the right people were listening in, prayed that they weren’t alone when they heard the news.

“Looks like-”

Fuck. They were so young. D’s throat threatened to close on him, but he pushed through.

“Jet Star and the Kobra Kid had a clap with an exterminator that went all Costa Rica and uh…”

Poor Cherri. Poor Ghoul. Poor Party Poison.

“Got themselves ghosted, dusted out on Route Guano.”

D wanted to end the broadcast right there. There was nothing more he wanted to say. He should have read the paper first, he should’ve told the crew at the diner directly. He should have read it in front of the Witch and demanded she bring them back. But he knew the silence was stretching out too long and Pony was rubbing his shoulder as tears dripped down aer nose and fell to the floor, he had to keep going. So did the rest of the desert.

“So it’s time to hit the red line and upthrust the volume out there.” _Keep running_ , his brain supplied sarcastically. “Keep your boots tight, keep your gun close, and-”

His throat closed off for a split second. D took a steadying breath and scraped out the last of his message.

“Die with your mask on, if you’ve got to.” He hoped that Jet and Kobra had. “Here, is the traffic.”

Finally, D could switch the input. Pony had set up a traffic report, just a string of songs together to keep the desert moving after someone had fallen still for good. The first song that played was a track by Mad Gear and the Missile Kid.

Cruel irony.

D swore. He should’ve delivered the news directly. The Witch had even hinted he might want to, but no. She’d been right, it was rare to be surprised like this by a message.

D was used to reporting the deaths of killjoys. But not these ones. The Fabulous Four, the killjoys that embodied most what D and his crew had fought for in the early days, torn apart, split in half by something as mindless as an exterminator. D pressed his forehead to the desk and took a deep breath.

Behind him, Pony was still crying. Ae gasped quiet breaths as they rolled aer skates back and forth slightly, just like ae always did when ae were upset.

The song hadn’t even ended before D’s personal radio buzzed.

“Tell me it isn’t true.” Fun Ghoul’s voice rang out in the room. “Tell me they’re not-”

“I-”

Pony grabbed the radio from D’s hand, “I’m sorry, Ghoul.”

“Fuck,” Ghoul’s voice broke, and the radio fell silent for a long time. When he came back, his voice was thick. “What- What happened?”

D read the note that the Witch had passed him, it was brief, she gave him specifics and he rounded them out into full updates. “Jet Star. Kobra Kid. Route Guano. Two exterminators. Draculoids. No survivors.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Is- Has- Is Poison over there?”

“No. Isn’t he with you?”

“No. They- I don’t know where he went. They left right after the broadcast, I don’t even know if he knows yet.”

“Is Cola up?”

“Not yet.”

D cursed under his breath. He didn’t pity Ghoul for having to explain to Cherri Cola what had happened. “Do you want-?”

“He just got up. I have to go.”

Ghoul cut the transmission and D stared at Pony. Ae stared back, tear tracks tracing down aer cheeks.

“Should I- What now, Doc?”

“Traffic report’ll be over soon. I’d like to end the show for today but...” D felt so heartless for his next words. “The desert won’t stop for two ‘joys.”

“No,” Pony pushed a hand through aer hair and wiped aer cheeks roughly, “but it should.”

* * *

Three days later, another raven feather drifted to Dr. D’s soundboard. He brushed it aside, letting it flutter to the floor.

Pony was at his side in an instant, ae’d been repacking aer medkit, but they abandoned it to pick up the feather.

“I’ll take over,” ae murmured. “You’ve got a meeting.”

D nodded almost-reluctantly, passing the headphones over and rolling out of the room, feather sticking out of his chest pocket. He returned to the shady side of the RadioShack, lit the feather, and waited for the Phoenix Witch to appear.

“Doctor,” she nodded.

“Lady,” D inclined his head. “More news? Who now?”

“A retraction,” the Witch hummed. She scratched under the side of her face with one long talon. “Jet Star and the Kobra Kid have… Returned.”

“They have?”

“I was… persuaded. By someone you may know.”

Cola. D would bet his life on it that the gentle poet had given up some of his own deaths to bring his family back together.

“Do they know?”

The Witch tugged a feather out of the spot below her mask that she’d been scratching and tossed it to the side. As it drifted into the sunlight, the feather evaporated. “No. It has been requested that they not.”

“I’ll… say it was a red herring? Somethin’ to keep BL/ind off their tail.”

“Do. Or do not. The news will get out on its own terms, but you should know what their martyr requested.”

“Thank you, Lady.”

The Witch nodded once, then vanished. She left behind a trio of green beads and D stared at them for a long moment.

He rolled back inside the Shack, leaving the beads to dissolve when the sun eventually worked its way to that side of the building.

“What now?” Asked Pony. Ae was idly spinning in the chair, a record playing softly behind aer.

“They’re back.” D let the barest hint of a smile cross his face. “Jet Star and the Kobra Kid are back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment or come talk to me on my [tumblr!](sleevesareforloser.tumblr.com)


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